On Tuesday night at our All Church Celebration, I made a few huge announcements. Honestly, they are nothing short of miracles. And while it seems like miracles are happening right and left these days, we don’t take a single one for granted. Each one is a reason to praise God and believe God even more! I’ll save some of the announcements for later, but here’s one of them.

Last summer we purchased the old Mile Glass Company at 8th & Virginia Ave, SE. That contract was a miracle in and of itself. It was a $3 million gift that put us in a position to look for property, and we feel like we found the last piece of property on Capitol Hill that was sizable enough for our purposes. But the miracles continue to happen. About two months later we purchased three empty lots that face 7th street. Then we turned our attention to the auto shop on the corner of 7th & Virginia Ave, SE. Here’s the problem: it wasn’t for sale. On September 15th our staff went over to the property and we laid hands on that auto shop. It felt like an impossible prayer, but we prayed for divine favor. We knew that the owner of the auto shop had refused all previous offers, some of them more than half a million dollars more than the offer we were making. We went back and forth for months and it seemed on several occasions like the deal was dead. Then on January 15, four months to the day after we prayed on the property, we got a contract. We settled on the property on February 28 and NCC now owns an auto shop and a glass company! We also own the entire face of Virginia Avenue from 7th to 8th street. Praise God.

One more miracle. We own $8 million dollars worth of property debt free. Are you kidding me? Only in God’s economy! All I know is this: when God gives a vision He makes supernatural provision. It’s a testament to God. It’s a testament to NCC. And it’s a testament to the generosity of those who put God first in their finances and believe that investing in the Kingdom of God is the only investment that earns eternal dividends. I’m humbled and grateful beyond words.

One more thing. We also have a contract on two more lots that face L Street, SE giving us approximately 30,000 sf. I know that isn’t much by suburban standards, but by urban standards, we feel like it’s huge. Especially when there isn’t much property inventory and the going rate is about $14 million per acre.

Now that we have our footprint finalized we’ll turn our focus to design. We’ll obviously build a vertical campus including an underground parking garage. Our initial plan is for a coffeehouse, performance theater, offices, and hopefully a ministry space for kids that doubles as a child development center to serve a huge need in our Capitol Hill community. That isn’t an exhaustive list, and we still have some research to do, but it’s a start.

This is going to be a long and complicated process, but the final product will be worth the investment of time, energy, and money. And just a reminder: it’s not about property and buildings. It’s about people. But I believe this property and this building were destined for God’s purposes!